The Documentarian’s Dilemma

I keep asking myself if [documentaries] are really that much different [from reality shows]. After all, documentary filmmakers are also purveyors of a tell-all, show-all, know-all culture Everyday life has become pop-culture entertainment, exploited as much by big TV networks and social-media companies as by the Jacks and Jills who offer up their lives in exchange for being noticed. That makes me, your typical liberal who wants to make a difference with my art documentaries, a bit queasy. What is happening when I take the raw ingredients of life and turn them into an entertaining product? And is that end product an approximation of reality, a blatant exploitation of it, or a mushy in-between that is blurring the lines of fact and fiction?